October Chapter Meeting
From Pretty Good to Last Story Standing
presented by Johanna Walker
As a professional speaker, you already know stories matter. You tell them on stages all the time. But there’s a difference between telling a “pretty good” story and telling one that moves the room, takes your audience on a journey, and stays with them long after it’s over.
Too many speakers get buried in the backstory, wander away from the point, get lost in the weeds, or forget to build any stakes, leaving the audience wondering… “Huh? Why are they telling that story?”
With NSA's Last Story Standing 2027 competition upon us, now’s the perfect time to dig into the nuts & bolts of how to find, craft, and tell a story that moves your audience to inspired action -- not to mention wins competitions!
In this hands-on session, you’ll workshop a story for the Last Story Standing competition. We’ll dig for stories—including ones you might not even know are stories yet. Then we'll break it down, rebuild it, and figure out what works, what doesn’t, and how to make it stronger.
Whether you’re headed for the competition or simply want your stories to make a bigger impact from the stage, you’ll leave with a stronger story and practical tools you can use with every story you tell.
Johanna Walker is a speaker, trainer, and storytelling expert who helps coaches, consultants, leaders and subject-matter experts communicate with clarity, confidence, and authenticity when the stakes are high. She has presented for corporations, nonprofits, startups, community organizations, and on the TEDx stage. She is also a Moth StorySLAM winner, and the 2025 winner of the Denver NSA Chapter Last Story Standing competition.
Johanna is the founder of Speaker’s Playground and Craft Your Talk, experiential training programs that help her clients turn their ideas and expertise into clear, compelling talks and deliver them with confidence. For 11 years, she produced and hosted Boulder’s Story Slam, a nationally recognized storytelling series featuring true stories told live on stage. In other words, she’s spent a lot of time listening to stories, telling them, and figuring out what makes them tick.
Johanna is also a performer and solo theater artist who has written and toured original shows throughout the U.S. and Canada. Along the way, she’s danced at the White House in a rabbit suit, cut fish heads in Alaska, and delivered messages by bike in pre-email New York City—so she has plenty of stories to tell.
She currently lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she dances tango, lindy hop & contact improvisation, grows food in her garden, and often gets distracted by the birds that visit her neighbors bird feeder. Learn more about Johanna or find her on LinkedIn.
Agenda
8:30 -- Arrive, Networking
9:00-10:00 -- In-Meeting Speaker Lab (requires separate registration if you would like to speak)
10:30-Noon -- Johanna Walker: From Pretty Good Story to Last Story Standing
Noon-1:00 -- Lunch, Networking
1:00-1:30 -- Inside the Speaker Studio: Pieces of the Pie
1:30 -- Johanna Walker
3:30 -- CSP Journey: Accountability Decisions
